Category Archives: Me stuff

Jan19

Winter sunshine

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This Friday and again today, I headed down to the neighboring town’s yearly huge book sale. They advertise that there is over 70K books and I do believe them! Being the book lover I am, I can’t pass up a sale. There was even a geocache in the parking lot to look for. Too bad it was so cold yesterday. I had looked at it via the satellite shot a month or so ago and didn’t I sit down ‘across’ from where it really was at the end of a bridge. The problem is I couldn’t reach right for it. I actually wondered up and down the bridge for about 15 minutes. I went back on the website and emailed a guy who had found it after 3 tries. He sent me back a detailed explanation. Today I had Brian. I swore it was the ‘right’ on my side, but it was on the other side! Then I couldn’t find my pen, so had to use a pencil in the SUV.

We didn’t go hog wild book wise. In fact Sean didn’t buy anything.

We decided to go to the New Castle (Delaware) Farmer’s market, but took a detour so Sean could see the old area of the town. Brian and I had been there a few times. I got out and took a few photos, this being my favorite:

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See the trio of tree and fence tops?

We then headed to the farmer’s market. I was having major hurt issues with my knee down to the back of my calf.  Think I did something Friday night getting out to retrieve a cache.  (That’s an entirely different story!)

At the market, we found young Amish people selling donuts. They were much more in cost than the ‘DD’, but they are larger and fluffier. Best I ever had! Have to be careful eating those!

We also went to ‘The Hut’ and when we pulled in the parking lot, we saw Sean’s old Taurus that he traded in 1.5 yrs ago! Someone who works there owned it. I think Sean was super surprised. He took good care of that car (his 1st car) and when he saw it, he said ‘that car took me back and forth to Penn State many times’. Where he traded it in for his newer Taurus is about a 1/4 mile away.  But the chances of us seeing it again, just wow.

We went to get gas, found another guardrail cache at the station next to it (drove in circles a bit, guess the attendant wondered what we were doing) and then hit the Goodwill where I found a few bird tchotchkes, one of which is a Marjolein Bastin for Hallmark.

I mainly bought crafting books at the sale earlier, ribbon embroidery and drawing for my mom and a few historic fictions along with crafts for me.

It was nice to have Sean along. He was a little depressed at first, some job issues going on in the family and I guess he feels that his time in the sun isn’t coming along fast enough in the job field. The economy is still not great and I think Sean will have to move away from here when he is done with his schooling.

Jan16

Six days of gloom

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Post #3,500!!!!

Here’s some irony for you…Friday I get lens darkening eyeglasses in the mail. I can’t wait to try them out. On the way to Lancaster it starts raining…6 days later I’m still waiting to see them darken!

The kids at the church aren’t even running around, but laying their little heads on the table. We got them interested in an ABC train puzzle where they all had about 5 letters and had to add the one called out to the line in the train. For three, they did great!

We’ve had fog like we haven’t had for ages. A Facebook photography/artist pal went out and took photos, so I followed suit, but lasted about 10 minutes as it was so chilly and damp.

Spring couldn’t be more anticipated this year .I do look forward to the winter months to do indoor stuff. As my back has improved, so has my cleaning up-lol. I have to be careful though as unfortunately my right knee is still bad. If Brian and I can do 1/2 hour-hour a month in the basement every few weeks we’d see an improvement down in that mess.

Yesterday, we all went to see my mom, but first I got my hair done my sister-in-law. They have a 10 month old black Lab pup and she gets so excited to see people. We took my mom to a Dollar Tree for canned goods and about 15 bags later, she obviously bought more than what she went in there for! I had to drag it up to her house with a wagon as Brian and Sean went to see my father-in-law to make sure his rotor was good so he now has WiFi.

Not too much happening, but as with the season, it’s time to slow down a bit anyway.

Here’s another ‘fog’ photo for you.

foggy

Jan12

Day tripping again to Lancaster Co.

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I’m not going to let the wintertime stop me(us) from taking daytrips up to the Lancaster area. There are many unclaimed geocaches in the rolling hills of this county! Plus I am loving the little market about 16 miles or so away. Brian is usually off on Fridays now. He got a flu shot Thursday and decided to get the oil changed the next day. He would be in for a rude awakening! We usually go to the same place and I located a coupon for a repair shop offering the deal for much cheaper. Well the man came out and told Brian he had 1 quart of oil left in the SUV that usually holds 6. The previous place put in the incorrect filter…it’s been slowly leaking for almost 8 months.  Brian hasn’t checked it lately. I don’t understand why the previous place would risk hurting our vehicle.

Anyway, we headed out a little too late…2:45 pm. It then started to rain, when I thought it was going to be an evening rain. We need to get moving sooner! We were going to Intercourse, the town where part of the movie Witness was filmed. I had wanted to find about 4-5 geocaches. We ended up walking a little in the rain for the first one. It was a big ammo box right next to a fabric store! I dropped off the little gingerbread man tb and took a couple to pass on. This guy was watching us:

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The cache was to the left of him a few feet away under another bush.

I was tickled to see that a few stores over was The Old Candle Barn. Sean and I had been in this area back in March of last year. They have the cutest things. I got a little wrought iron fairy holding a bird, a nest and a little ceramic bird. Oh I could have done  retail damage!

Cute display!

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If you recall last year I took a photo of the bunny made out of the pearl buttons and made my own. It’s hanging in the family room.

By 4:15, it didn’t look like many places were still open for business! On a Friday? We went to one cache that was easy to locate quickly. We then headed down the road to Leacock Presbyterian church about 4:45 pm. We had to park across the street. I got smart and put a hat on, but Brian was getting drenched. We were ‘this close’, but we didn’t want to go inside the stone wall. I will bring my camera next time when we get the geocache.

We headed to the farmer’s market for their buffet dinner. There aren’t many places you get dinner for $13.99 (and all you can eat)! We enjoyed prime rib, ham, sides and dessert. I mainly tasted a lot of things like the pineapple bread, butter beans, etc. All starchy!

Afterwards, we went in the grocery store and got some great deals. We had a terrible drive home. Today it was warmer and sunnier. I have to watch the weather better. I did do a few things around the house and in the basement, but I do have to downsize. I did find some things for Valentine’s Day!

I’m really having issues with using the bigger vehicle-it’s hard for me to climb in and out of it. I have been terribly achy today, especially my knee. I can hardly go up and down the basement steps.

Jan9

Back on schedule

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I went back to the preschool this morning. It was rough getting up that early, but I was pretty much ready to go by 8:15, so  I have a little time to myself.

The kids arrived mostly late, and a few of the little boys were misbehaving today. I brought some rewards stickers with me. I asked them to answer me ‘fine, thanks’, to the question, how are you? A few wouldn’t answer me. The one little stinker ‘A’ tore his sticker in half and threw it away! He did everything he could think of to misbehave (he had time out), but when I rewarded a few of the boys extra stickers, the little stinker ‘A’ thought he better tell his mom he was really good today! The other teacher said he was! I don’t believe in not telling the truth. I mean think of one good thing ‘A’ did, but tell his mom he wasn’t listening well at all. The other little boy ‘L’, wow, what a change in him! I gave his mom a thumbs up. I think ‘A’ was taking all that in. There is a little guy who reminds me of Brian at that age from the photos I’ve seen. Because I was doling out stickers, he may have kept giving me big smiles. Gotta love that.

I took down all the trees, but left a few decorations in my bay window for a few more weeks. I haven’t used my dolls that much, and I enjoy seeing them. If you go to the Brandywine River Museum at Christmas, you will get the pleasure of seeing Anne Wyeth McCoy’s vast antique collection.

Definitely because I am a little stronger, but still achy, I do want to do spring cleaning a bit earlier this year. The first thing I want to do is clear off my ‘eBay’ table. Actually the first thing I have to do is tidy up the Christmas storage boxes.

I have to share a funny geocaching experience. Brian and I had been down to my hometown to take my mom on a few shopping errands. When we were on our way home, I noticed a geocache in my hometown was up again! We were heading in the right direction, so turned down State Street. The GPS zoned in on a black bench and two chairs. Remember it’s night time and it’s a nano. It was mostly deserted…and then I saw Mr. Policeman heading down the middle of town. I quickly sat down and put the phone to my ear! Brian was going to give up, but I said, hold on, I want to look where people’s hand won’t normally hit, the back and on the bottom . Yay!

Unfortunately, earlier that evening, my mom got knocked off balance by a step up display’s corner at Old Navy. She was grabbing the coats she was looking at while I was grabbing her to save her from hitting the step too hard. For some reason she ended up laying flat on the display! The manager of the store was in a department close by and he didn’t even come over to see what was going on and if mom was okay!  She was alright, but very sore. She did shop for a few items for my brother’s birthday yesterday. I wrote customer service about the above. I got a phone call yesterday from HQ and they are sending mom a $50 gift card! It sure pays to speak up!

The orchid show is coming up at Longwood soon! Here’s a few from their orchid room.

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Dec15

How can there be Christmas this year?

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With the events of the 14th, I just couldn’t turn on the tree or lights yesterday. It didn’t seem right that I was enjoying my Christmas tree and 20 little children weren’t enjoying their holiday excitement.   I don’t know how many more places will be rampaged by those who get their hands on guns.  The 2nd Amendment is about militia-time to get real with that.

This lovely young lady was protecting her students

CTVicki

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On a personal level, I went out in the car on Tuesday and Wednesday-set me back a bit. I have been trying to do things which leads to more discomfort. Last night was really bad. I had been sitting on a cushion Brian’s dad sent over and when I got up, the pain was excruciating. I took a pain pill (I wasn’t given many, so watch how many I take) and it took 2.5 hours to kick in. I was feeling  blah all day and reviewed about taking Aleve with my hbp medicine and it’s not advised. All during the night, I made sure I stayed off my right side and iced it. Not good sleep, but less pain. It’s still hurting, so I have to figure out what to do. I’ll take it easy today, but our insurance isn’t paying for hardly anything! Says I have a ‘pre-existing condition’. Doesn’t seem fair that we are paying out of pocket every month and not getting help. I think the insurance kicks in after a year (May), but too bad if you have an issue before that.  My GP tried to get the insurance to pay for my September visit, but alas, got a bill in the mail yesterday.

 

Dec11

Please vote for me!

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I’m in a Christmas tree contest for about another week over at the Country Living magazine Pinterest board. If you like it, please simply click like. The prize is an Amazon Kindle. Please read what I wrote about the tree, etc. under the photo there.

This was the first day in over two weeks that I got in the car and went some place besides a doctor’s office. I did fairly well except for getting in and out of the vehicle. I went to a nice nursery place between my hometown and here and as my late grandmom said ‘the prices were dear’ like $64 for a paper decoration. I got some neat photos there.

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Terrain

Did a Longwood Gardens ‘drive by’. I’ll get there in late Dec./early Jan.

Longwood

We looked around Pier One and I selected a few things for my displays. They have very cute things there if you are looking for little gifts for people. I will ‘sniff’ them out after Christmas too!

And I made these retrospect ‘covers’ for Facebook. I still need 5 to get to 200 geocaches.

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2012geocaches

Dec10

Having fun with Instagram

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I am feeling better today. I’ll take more days like this! I have been using the heating pad off and on and I do believe it’s loosening up that sore, stiff muscle (or two). Brian suggested it. He saved me by buying yogurt as the medicine was going to give me issues and it helped too.

Sean helped me get some Christmas things from the basement and I did the front bay window and we strung lights outside. I took a few photos with the phone app ‘Instagram’ tonight. It’s like a Polaroid-you get a square photo and can use different effects.

This is part of my front window display. I have 3 sweet Christmas dolls. We put white lights under ‘snow’ and put the girls in a gold sleigh with Ernest Elf and Snowy owl. Yes, the owls are even dominate for Christmas as I got two of them for my birthday. I’m not finished all the way with the window. There are also shots of the mantel here.

Cmasdolls

You can’t see the one Richard Simmons doll.

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I have some glass jars this year on the mantel.  I need to get some candy for a few of them. The bright red lights are holly berries.

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And a view from outside

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Tomorrow Brian will take me to get my hair done as I am still a little nervous about using my right side to drive. I decided to skip the school too but the director said they are doing all Christmas activities on Wednesday.  I may swing by there to wish them Merry Christmas. The Bible study will resume on January 9th.

Dec8

Christmas Tree 2012

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I was really happy to start on our tree Friday night. I knew I wanted my ‘natural’ ornaments, pine cones, birds, mushrooms with a touch of red, white, silver and gold. The tree is so well lit (never had this kind of tree before) that I knew the ornaments would help take down the brightness. Today I looked in a newer box of things and there were red cardinals and red see-thru balls. I had put a few of our 20+ year old red balls up. This particular photo had to be lightened up.

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There are hearts and butterflies too. I happen to love the snowball and wish I had many more! I always add my winking moon (gold at the top), Sean’s photos from school (the few that he made), and a gold flat Santa and his sleigh. The branches have tinsel in them! This is the tree we found at the Habitat for Humanity store last week for under $40. I’m very pleased with it.

And this is my cross-stitched ornament feather tree. It’s pretty full!

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And I can’t forget to tell you that our new sofa and chair came yesterday! They are really nice, but the sofa has some defects! It’s suppose to be brand new! We called the salesman right away and he said the indentation on one arm and the wrinkles in the ‘leather’ (not all leather) were from shipping. We are still waiting on the indentation to go away-but  it hasn’t. It feels like there isn’t enough foam.

What do you think?

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Here’s a side shot not showing the arms

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The big pillows are the back of the sofa! That’s nice as you can arrange them and fluff them.

And what I am sitting on now:

clubchair

That’s an old pillow.

So, hopefully if we live with that dent, he better know some $$ off of the price. I really think we should get another sofa. Too bad stuff like this has to happen.

Dec6

Hanging in there…

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Just a quick update. I was going on my 3rd day with the  pain in my right hip and back and decided to go to urgent care to see if I could get medication. I had tried both the orthopedist and primary doctor and only heard back from the ortho doctor I didn’t even know. He didn’t have my chart, so he wasn’t going to give me anything. I waited 7 hours for his call for nothing. It seems that first you see the orthopedist and then they want you to get physical therapy. No medication for pain, just OTC stuff.  So I did try the PT, and boy have I been suffering. I pulled a muscle or muscles big time!  It’s stabbing pain and when I mostly go to sit down or even walk. Sean had seen the same doctor. She was kind of straight forward. At the time I went, I had taken the last Aleve in the house and they normally don’t agree with me. I wasn’t hurting as much there like I do at home. I did get pain pills and a muscle relaxant and have taken both. They help a little, but I’m still hurting when they wear off a bit. I also had to proof read a paper for Sean that took a few hours to do, but I kept standing up and walking around.

The sofa and chair are coming tomorrow! That meant Brian vacuuming, moving stuff and pretty much getting the house in jumble. I can’t wait as I will be sitting on the club chair and ditching the computer chair.

Here’s hoping I will be more myself in a few days. I wouldn’t wish this discomfort on my worst enemy! Take care of your backs!

Here’s the only thing that is fully decorated. I’m not too worried about this, but I am more worried about wrapping things. May have to wait until the last minute.

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I will take a better photo soon!

Dec5

PT…hope it’s the right thing for me

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Just to let you know, I went to my first physical therapy session. I was in a communal waiting room and no one came for me after 20 minutes. I go back to the  desk and they said I should have gone right in the PT room. No one said to do this. Felt like I started off on the wrong foot there-yes, a pun. I had gone geocaching in the late afternoon on Sunday, went down a hill a little fast and felt something pull in my other hip. I told the PT this and it didn’t seem to phase her. I spent most of the time on my tummy. They put heat on my back first-nice. Then I did a few exercise with my legs. Then she made me do 3 sets of upper body push ups and asked me to do another, which I refused. Well, since yesterday I have been totally miserable! I can hardly move around without shooting pain in my right hip! I called the office today and the receptionist said the PT said I needed to be re-evaluated or to go to the doctor. I asked if I should stop with the exercises and she said only if it made me feel worse-yes! Why would I call? I did try them again and Brian went to pull me up and I was in terrible pain! I decided to call out at the school tomorrow. That stinks as it’s only once a week, but I can’t do anything remotely associated with leaning over to help the kiddos. I am losing pay for pushing myself so much.

So… I think I should have been eased into these exercises. I told the PT about having Lyme Disease and assorted aches and pains for years (14 now). She told me the only thing that will help me are the push ups. I am finding sitting in the old desk chair does help, but doing those exercises messed with my right side.

I tried to put more of my autumn things away, and that’s almost taken care of. At least the tree is up and when the ornament boxes come out of the basement, I can get help with decorating it. I can’t even think about making cookies or wrapping gifts. : (

I was alarmed to hear that about a week ago,  someone shot a rifle very close to our house and bullets went through a house about 1/2 mile away missing someone and hitting their wedding photo. It was the start of hunting season, yet there are ‘no hunting’ signs posted and most of the area around us is private property. Even my 82 yr old neighbor still uses a gun right next door.  We heard him that day too and saw a deer hanging from a tree in front of his property the next day or so.  Many years ago, People magazine had an article about a young mother with twins who happened to be out in her yard (probably like this yard) and she was wearing big white mittens that resembled a deer tail. A hunter in the woods saw her raise her hand and thought it was a deer and shot, killing her. Now tell me, if it’s not an arranged hunt, who has the business of almost taking a person’s life like what happened last week or taking the life of a mom whose children never got to know her for  a blood sport?

I was out in the yard today and heard rustling up the hill-deer were running away. I yelled to them, ‘I just saved your life!’
Close-up of Blue Spruce munching deer